Tag Archives: Trading Cards

Been doing a bunch of collection culling, house cleaning and framing these past couple of weeks (trying to get a jump on Spring cleaning I guess), and in the process I’ve been digging back into my collection of Garbage Pail Kids. I’ve always wanted to find a fun way to display some of the GPK card art on the walls of the Branded abode, but I didn’t want to go with an uncut sheet or one of the checklist style posters that was released back in the day. The cards themselves are a bit too small to really pop on the wall too, so aside from trying to procure some of the original artwork (way too pricey) my thought has always been to pick up some of the 5″x7″ Giant 1st series cards. Up until recently though I’ve resisted this urge since I wasn’t as familiar with that set (having missed in while collecting as a kid), and I felt a little weird framing some of those pieces. After stumbling onto the majority of the 1st series by chance this past year though, I decided ‘what the hell’ and picked up some of my favorites from the set to frame. I haven’t hung them yet, but they look freaking spectacular in the frames so I can’t wait until they’re on the walls peppered throughout the rooms…

I figured this would be a good time to share some more of the GPK wax wrappers in my collection, so beginning where I left off with the 1st WPPA, here is the 6th series pack released in 1986…

It never occurred to me that it was a little weird that Topps switched from using the Adam Bomb imagery for the wrappers with this set, but now that I think about it, it is a little weird that they switched to an image of Potty Scotty. In the sets following the wrapper designers started highlighting a new sticker from each set as the wrapper image, so I wonder why they chose to dip back into the 1st series for this 6th wax pack? Especially when you consider that this set featured an updated variation on the kid-in-a-toilet concept with JOHN John & Flushing Floyd. Actually, there was also an updated on the Adam Bomb concept with Dyna Mike & Newlydead Ed that would have been pretty damn cool for the wrapper. Guess it can just be chalked up to a missed opportunity…

The 7th series was released in 1987 and was one of the last series that I heavily collected back in the 80s…

Next up is the wrapper for the 8th series also released in 1987…

The 9th series is pretty much where I stopped buying. It’s also the last “classic” series that featured the original GPK arched logo, Cabbage Patch Kid inspired eye design, and the softer imagery of plush dolls for the kids. It was around this time that Topps settled a lawsuit with the makers of the CPKs, part of which was to augment the artwork to feature harder looking dolls with larger, rounder eyes and cracked skin. Though I wasn’t aware of the impending changes at the time, I’m sure I would have scoffed at the coming 10th series as too much of a change. 25 or so years later though I find that I have a soft spot in my heart for the last six original sets and have been able to get over the imposed changes to the series adding a bunch of them to my collection. I guess being a completist is a stronger urge than a traditionalist…

Last up today we have the 10th series wrapper, which was the second to last one released in 1987…

As a slightly anticlimactic close to this mini Tron nostalgia week, I decided to close out with the wrapper to the 1982 Donruss Tron card set (as a bookend to the stickers I posted on Wednesday.) It’s not the most engaging wax wrapper design. In fact I believe other than the neatness of the logo, this is probably one of the more boring card pack wrappers out there.

I think this is a bit indicative of the marketing issues I’ve noticed with the original film. Most of the merchandise I’ve seen used the same hands-on-hips static pose of the Tron character blankly starring, or it uses that image as the center piece surrounded by a barrage of small screencaps that don’t really capture the excitement of the lightcycle race, or the emotional resonance of watching a program get de-rezzed.

I know Disney wanted a big push with the merchandising of the flick, but I’m wondering if people just didn’t know how to market a movie like Tron?

Well, the new flick opens tonight and the wife and I are going to try and catch the 1st screening in the morning. Here’s to hoping it does the original some justice…

In honor of the impending spooktacular festivities coming in just one short week I thought it would be fun to make today’s Wax Paper Pop Art a super-sized, all-horror edition. First up we have the complete set of wrappers from the 1988 Topps Fright Flicks card set (you can see the Stickers here)…

Straying a bit into some more classical monster territory we have the wrappers for the 1980 Topps Creature Feature sequel set (the stickers for which I talked about here), as well as the wrapper for the original 1973 set…

You can’t talk about 80s horror without mentioning the Gremlins. Well, at least I can’t. This is the wrapper from the 1984 Topps trading card set, the stickers are mentioned here…

For this last wrapper we’ll need to hop in the DeLorean and travel back all the way to 1964, ending up on 1313 Mockingbird Lane for a visit with the Leaf Munsters trading cards…

To sort of keep this week’s McDonalds posts going I thought I’d take a minute to share some awesome trading cards from the impressive collection of the one and only Brandon of the Waffle Whiffer Zone. Brandon’s site and Flickr feed have been a constant source of inspiration on Branded for the last four years and change.

Since I haven’t been able to find a physical example of any McDonald’s branded wax packages, I figured the next best thing would be to take a look at some trading cards the company produced in Cleveland, Ohio back in 1974. These promo cards are all themed with specific iconography of the area including the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (behind Grimace), Hale Farm & Western Reserve Village in Bath, Ohio in Summit County (behind Mayor McCheese), the Cleveland Health Museum and Education Center (behind Officer Big Mac), the Great Lakes Historical Society Museum in Vermilion (behind Captain Crook), the Cleveland Zoo in Brookside Park (behind Ronald McDonald), and the Blossom Music Center, located between Cleveland and Akron (behind a very laid back Hamburglar.)

One of the things that I love about these cards is that the art is so simplified and interesting. It’s the same aesthetic that draws me to bubblegum card wax package art. It’s much better than the art in that 1980 Calendar I shared on Monday too.

Heartfelt thanks go out to Brandon for letting me use the images from his Flickr feed. You should definitely take a moment and visit him at his site, Waffle Whiffer Zone for some amazing nostalgic ephemera…

Today on Wax Paper Pop Art, Indiana Jones. The first wrapper is a little boring, if only because Topps/O-Pee-Chee used a glorified photocop in the artwork instead of loosely re-drawing the image. I’m much more interested in the crude, simplistic renderings with these wrappers, or at least re-drawn images. Photo quality is just sort of lifeless…

Raiders of the Lost Ark from Topps (O-Pee-Chee in Canada), 1981.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom from Topps, 1984. I talked about the stickers here.

I’ve been falling in love with the USA network show Burn notice recently, and it’s got me thinking about all the tropes that make for a great one-and-done hour-long action shows. And this got me thinking about Tom Selleck and his sweet ride. So here you go…

Can you hear the theme music? I can. And now I’m going to try and stop an out-of-control Winnebago that has an illegal poker game inside. Or do I tackle that out-of-control go-cart with the wind-surfing sail attached? Damnit, there’s also some unruly skateboarders tearing up the local sidewalks! Of course Elvira is also in town, so there’s that too. A CHiPie’s job is never done…